New computer has no optical drive, how to load Office 2003

I used to install Open Office.org when I was building and rebuilding machines.

I found out just recently that it no longer exists for download as it was sold off or something like that.

Now I guess there are two off-shoots.

One is Apache Open office and the other is Libre.

I see here that some of you have used Libre.

Can anyone who has compared the two versions comment on them in comparison.

I recently installed Apache on a machine and it looked like the original but when I opened a document originally written on WORD it did not format properly. As I recall I never had that problem with Open Office.

2oldman wrote:

MitchF150 wrote:
What laptop does not come standard with a writeable DVD drive??

Netbooks, or a presumably cheap laptop.

Hardly. I have a $2k Toshiba ultra book with no optical drive. I do have a $99 portable usb optical drive that I used once when I first set the computer up. The pricey ultrabooks like mine are premium full function laptops with solid state drives. They leave out the optical drive to make them slim and light weight. My days of carrying a 10 pound lap top all day long is over. Me and my twice rebuilt shoulder love the 2.5 lb laptop will never miss the cd drive.

Bill.Satellite wrote:

MitchF150 wrote:
What laptop does not come standard with a writeable DVD drive?? Are you getting a 'tablet' for your wife?? Those do not have drives and only USB ports and some don't even have those...

Many laptops, especially the Netbook style, do not have an optical drive. In nearly all cases this is not an issue and allows for substantially smaller, lighter laptop computers. How many times do you use/need your optical drive? If you answer truthfully, you will understand why a built-in optical drive is really not necessary about 99% of the time. Paying a few extra bucks for a USB drive still leaves you hundreds of dollars ahead of the game.

Gotcha and I stand corrected... Never really thought about it like that.. I just bought some laptops for my office, but had different requirements for them, so didn't even look at anything less..

It's true that unless you are installing older software, an optical drive is not really needed to be built in these days.. Most new software is simply downloaded...

Mitch

you can buy external USB cd/dvd drives
sounds like you bought her a 'netbook' or similar 10"-12" PC

wildtoad wrote:
CD and Dvd's will soon go the way of the DODO bird (and the land line).

Maybe. What will that do to Redbox and Netflix?

Thunder Mountain wrote:

2oldman wrote:

MitchF150 wrote:
What laptop does not come standard with a writeable DVD drive??

Netbooks, or a presumably cheap laptop.

Sorry my friend... I was shocked to see that newest Apples offer an external DVD drive as an option. Dell's newest and best are the same.

CD and Dvd's will soon go the way of the DODO bird (and the land line). The "cloud", streaming, download services are making physical media obsolete.

The new iMac's don't come with a disc drive. Perhaps the iCloud and App Store has something to do with it. Actually I only used my disc drive twice last year to download some pictures.

And if none of the other posts work, when you get your wife's new computer download a copy of Libre Office and throw that 10 year old cd away. Libre is free and so far is VERY compatible with MS Office.

2oldman wrote:

MitchF150 wrote:
What laptop does not come standard with a writeable DVD drive??

Netbooks, or a presumably cheap laptop.

Sorry my friend... I was shocked to see that newest Apples offer an external DVD drive as an option. Dell's newest and best are the same.

2oldman wrote:

MitchF150 wrote:
What laptop does not come standard with a writeable DVD drive??

Netbooks, or a presumably cheap laptop.

Every Ultrabook out there...